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Summer Rains and Saad

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Category: Palestine/Israel

Gaza - Autumn 2006 --- The thin and limpid crescent lies on its back in a clear sky. If it does not reappear tomorrow then Ramadan will end. A 'drone' can be heard above the amplified recitations of the Quran, but it cannot be seen.

 

On the third floor of the battered and very busy Shifa hospital here in Gaza city lies a 9 yr old boy in his fourth month of recovery. Saad is a sad and frightened boy. He has lost all the muscle from the front of his left thigh. The shape of his femur can be seen in its entirety beneath the skilful skin grafting. There is just a twitch of motion in the foot. Most parts of his young body are scarred. There are many of punctate type, including on his face. There is a colostomy which will probably be permanent because his bowels were badly damaged. The tracheostomy has healed, and the pleural fistula is well on that way.

Here Come the Armani Democrats

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Category: Guest Articles
America's Progressive Nightmare

By Joe Mowrey
 Counter Punch
We are already beginning to see the results of the "blue wave" which occurred in our recent elections. Lobbyists are retooling to accommodate their favorite Democratic politicians. Harry Reid has promised to increase the military budget by $75 billion. Impeachment is "off the table," not to mention trials for war crimes. And Democrats have pledged to raise the minimum wage to a whopping $7.25 an hour. That's a total income of $15,080 a year, before taxes. Members of Congress will give themselves that much in automatic cost of living increases alone over the next five years. Let's face it, the power elite have successfully executed a changing of the guard.

The "progressive" community wasted the last two years and countless resources sponsoring corporate lackeys for election to a fascist system of government. (Fascism was originally defined by Benito Mussolini as a partnership between government and corporations.) Congratulations. There still is no serious anti-war or anti-militarism movement in this country. The corporatists won-peace and social justice lost, again. With progress like this, who needs habeas corpus?

Are New Weapons Being Used In Gaza And Lebanon?

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Category: Palestine/Israel
Gulf News reported a claim by Dr Al Saqqa, Head of the Emergency Unit of El Shifa Hospital, Gaza on 7-07-06 that the Israeli Occupation Force was using a new 'chemical' weapon.

He has worked at El Shifa for ten years. He had noted that two hundred and more casualties of Summer Rain (sic) had unusual wounds. These numbers included about fifty children. Later evidence from Dr Al Saqqa described surface wounds as having the general appearance of those due to 'shrapnel' – fragments from shell, missile or bomb casings – but no fragments were to be seen on Xray. There were usually entry and exit wounds. When the wounds were explored no foreign material was found. There was tissue death, the extent of which was difficult to determine. It is vital, especially with deep wounds, to excise all dead tissue. A higher deep infection rate resulted with subsequent amputation. In spite of amputation there was a higher mortality.

Siege of 1.4 Million Souls in Gaza v International Law

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Category: Occupation of Palestine and the Law
The 360 square kms of the 'Strip' represent 1.5% of 'mandate' Palestine. Another 3 million Palestinians live in the ineptly named 'West Bank', and in East Jerusalem. This represents about 11% of mandate Palestine.

Two thirds of the 1.4 million population in the Gaza Strip are refugees and their offspring. The former had fled southwards from their homes and land in 1948 before and during the Arab-Israeli war. The massacre of Deir Yassin on April 4th was a central cause of the panic that drove that mass migration, as well as overwhelming force of arms. The refugees were given materials for building concrete shelters in 'camps' throughout the Strip. They were cheek by jowl, and cold in winter. In spite of UN resolution 242 and others, they have remained trapped in an utterly oppressive environment. Since the start of the second intifada – 'shaking loose', in September 2000, the standard of living has dropped steadily. Unemployment has been over 50% and is rising quickly now. 78% of the population are living under the poverty line of less than US $ 2.1 per person per day, and 10% of children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition. (1) A study in late 2002 found that 17.5% of children aged 6–59 months suffered from chronic malnutrition 53% of women of reproductive age and 44% of children were found to be anaemic (2 )

Links to Web Sites

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Category: Political
Links to Web Sites I Value or have to do with

"Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them. There is almost no kind of outrage - - - - torture, imprisonment without trial, assassination, the bombing of civilians - - - -  which does not change its moral color when it is committed by our side. The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them." -George Orwell